Marketed within the country and overseas as “India’s Economic Expressway”, the next week’s Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017 has the key word “Investors” missing yet again—perhaps the Government did so as investors have actually exited India with nearly $ 4 billion since November 8 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation.

The reason for dropping the ‘investors’ tagline is said to be that many other states, which virtually copied this ‘Gujarat model’ have, over the years, attracted more investments and the State Government has had to struggle with winnowing out fiction from facts about the actual investment that came in and the employment opportunities it generated since 2003 when the first Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors ’ Summit was held.

So, when Modi inaugurates the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here on January 10, despite hype and hoopla, the focus of the four-day mega-event is still not clear. In the 2016-17 Budget, the State Government had officially allocated Rs. 70 crore for this jamboree; but, unofficially, its expenditure is estimated to be much more than this.

This year’s event is being held amid threats of agitating Patels, OBCs, Dalits and others to disrupt the Summit at a time when the ruling BJP’s Modi-led leadership is gearing up not only for the February-March Assembly polls in five states but also in Gujarat which is slated to go to the Vidhan Sabha elections in 2017 itself.

In this scenario, the Summit seems to be have turned into more of a biennial ritual of the State Government at the state’s expenses for the Prime Minister and his NDA Government: many central ministers are scheduled to address various country and theme seminars but the State Government’s own ministers are virtually absent from the scene of action, perhaps due to inability of many of them to converse in English. But the presence of half-a-dozen Nobel Laureates could yet provide some grace to the event-without-substance.

In fact, the event lost the tag “Investors” in 2013 and 2015 as well when Modi, then as CM, found the proposed investment figures in the lakhs of MoUs signed---Rs.65,000 crore in 2003 swollen to Rs. 20 lakh crore in 2011!—rather embarrassing as the rate of conversion into actual investment was well under 10% of these humongous numbers. In the earlier Summits, on the last day, he used to roll out these statistics with long pauses—to ensure the mammoth numbers with the number of zeroes sank in properly! But 2013 onwards, he and the State Government refused to share the proposed and increasingly controversial investment figures as reality sank in.

What, then, is the focus of this ‘business-without-investment’ event, whose initial success catapulted its promoter—Modi—to national firmament and then to Prime Ministership? In the earlier Summits, the country’s tallest corporate leaders would announce their investment plans and go public about seeing in Modi India’s “future leader”. This time around, too, they would share the platform with Modi, who will also inaugurate a Global CEOs’ Conference on January 10. Many a defence and energy honcho, global corporate leaders from sectors like energy, infrastructure, aviation and electricity will also be there.

For the record, a global CEO Roundtable with a theme ‘Transforming India’ would aim at encouraging constructive dialogue and networking of the global and Indian corporate magnates with Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, among others. “The discussions with the PM would unearth and crystallize the industry’s expectations regarding ‘the ideal investment destination’," said P K Taneja, Additional Chief Secretary for Mines and Industries, adding the event is expected to enhance "exchange of ideas."

The outcome of the CEO Roundtable would enable the government identify specific action points to make India the ‘undisputed’ for global investment friendliness, he told reporters.

About the expectations from the event, Taneja stated that the Summit would see an increased number of participation from across the globe. "The initial response is overwhelming. In last three-four months we have seen good interest for the investments," said Taneja adding that the government will bring out policies to make it convenient to do business in Gujarat.

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